Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Michael is co-founder and partner at JapanConsuming.

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports and seminars on retail sectors and consumer trends, as well as telephone consulting/meetings with investors. 

All of JapanConsuming's team are bilingual and bi-cultural, and the company's research sources are:

Direct meetings with retailers, wholesalers, distributors, trade body staff, govt., marketing firms, academics etc.
Govt. data
Trade association data
Trade Press across all consumer sectors
Unique Network of buyers/managers/marketing staff at retail, as well as wholesalers and trading firms.
Editors/Journalists at publishing houses and PR/Ad firms.


JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Michael Causton set up and ran a consumer distribution business in Tokyo for 10 years and developed this into a business responsible for annual imports to Japan of several billion Yen, at the same time building up an inside knowledge of how Japanese distribution works and developing a network of contacts across the industry. Seeing the lack of quality market intelligence on Japanese markets, he co-founded JapanConsuming in 2000. He divides his time between Japan and Europe/US consulting for companies, governments and investors, including providing talks, seminars, and webinars as well as writing reports and books.

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Rakuten Q4 20 Results: Mobile Losses Accelerate as Cash Requirements Become Clear

Japan Shopping Mall Development Stalls in 2021

Rakuten - Pricing Response Has a Few Surprises but Coverage Remains the Issue

KKR & Rakuten Ignite Online Food Battle with Seiyu Purchase

Japan Telecom Sector - KDDI Response to DoCoMo Pricing Increases the Pressure on Rakuten

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Equity Bottom-Up

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/rakuten-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31:1" rel="noopener">Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)</a>  posted a sharp improvement in sales at Rakuten Ichiba in 2020 as customers flocked to the e-commerce platform in lieu of shopping at physical stores. Based on our estimates, Rakuten and Amazon are pretty much neck and neck for leadership in e-commerce in Japan.
Going forward, Rakuten is hoping that the growth in cross-use of its e-commerce service by its new mobile subscriber base will continue as it works further to improve fulfilment reliability and coverage both alone and through its new joint venture with Japan Post.
In recognition of the increasing diversity of the company’s businesses, Rakuten will change its name to Rakuten Group from April.

Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)  posted a sharp improvement in sales at Rakuten Ichiba in 2020 as customers flocked to the e-commerce platform in lieu of shopping at physical stores. Based on our estimates, Rakuten and Amazon are pretty much neck and neck for leadership in e-commerce in Japan.
Going forward, Rakuten is hoping that the growth in cross-use of its e-commerce service by its new mobile subscriber base will continue as it works further to improve fulfilment reliability and coverage both alone and through its new joint venture with Japan Post.
In recognition of the increasing diversity of the company’s businesses, Rakuten will change its name to Rakuten Group from April.

Rakuten

Rakuten Surges in 2020